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Laurus nobilis
Also called Bay, Bay Laurel, Laurel, Grecian Laurel, Sweetbal Tree, Bay Leaf Laurel, Bay Leaf Tree
Sweet bay is an evergreen tree or large shrub from the Mediterranean, grown for its aromatic leaves used in cooking. It does best in a sunny spot with well-drained soil and can be kept small by pruning or grown in a container.
Laurus nobilis () is an aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub with green, glabrous (smooth) leaves. Common names include bay tree (especially in the United Kingdom), bay laurel, sweet bay, true laurel, Grecian laurel, or simply laurel.
It is in the flowering plant family Lauraceae. The stem can be 1 metre in diameter and the tree can be as high as 20 metres. Native to the Mediterranean region, Laurus nobilis figures prominently in classical Greco-Roman culture and served various medicinal, religious, and symbolic purposes. Bay leaves are widely used as seasoning in cooking.
Laurus nobilis is a widespread relict of the laurel forests that originally covered much of the Mediterranean Basin when the climate of the region was more humid. With the drying of the Mediterranean during the Pliocene era, the laurel forests gradually retreated, and were replaced by the more drought-tolerant sclerophyll plant communities familiar today. Most of the last remaining laurel forests around the Mediterranean are believed to have disappeared approximately ten thousand years ago, although some remnants still persist in the mountains of southern Turkey, northern Syria, southern Spain, north-central Portugal, northern Morocco, the Canary Islands and in Madeira.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Laurus nobilis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
